Doc highlights healing power of heavy metal music
When veteran talent manager Kenny Gabor of Unchained Management, Music and Media began feeling the effects of chronic lymphocytic leukemia, he turned to the music he had loved for years.
“Music like Social Distortion, the Ramones, Rage Against the Machine, Iron Maiden, Bad Religion, H2O, Civ, Judas Priest and Killswitch Engage,” he said.
Gabor’s experience is one of many featured in “Heavy Healing,” a new documentary that explores how heavy metal, punk rock and hardcore music can help people cope with physical and mental health challenges.
The film was created by producers Howie Abrams, Seth Abrams and Jammi York, who initially planned to write a book.
“We really didn’t feel that a book could do this idea justice, so we decided, three non-filmmakers, to make a movie about people who suffer from anything and everything — health, mental health, illness, disability — and have used aggressive music that we grew up being told wasn’t music at all to heal, to be motivated,” said Howie Abrams, who also directed the film.
The documentary features members of bands including Murphy’s Law, Agnostic Front, Killswitch Engage, Bowling for Soup, Leeway and H2O, as well as singer-songwriter Jesse Malin, who emerged from the hardcore scene.
The project was inspired in part by Seth Abrams, a music industry veteran whose life changed after an aortic aneurysm and a stroke.
“Fans of music may not know that the musicians they look up to have had health things, and now they see a story — ‘Oh, I have to go to a doctor too, this guy has the same thing I’m dealing with,’” Abrams said. “They see their favorite band and artists in a whole different light because of it.”
The film also highlights Lou Koller, founder and singer of the Queens hardcore band Sick of It All, who is battling esophageal cancer.
“I’m sitting there blasting Motörhead in my headphones, just relaxing — it relaxed me,” Koller said.
Also featured is Michael “Kaves” McLeer, co-founder of the Brooklyn hip-hop group Lordz of Brooklyn, who has long dealt with anxiety.
“You find these tones and these melodies and these things to help you cope with life,” McLeer said.
“Heavy Healing” will be screened as part of the ReelAbilities Film Festival, the world’s largest film festival dedicated to disability. Screenings are scheduled for April 25 in Harlem at the Maysles Documentary Center and April 27 at Nighthawk Cinema Prospect Park in Brooklyn.
Filmmakers say they hope the documentary challenges stereotypes about heavy music and shows its therapeutic value.
“Ultimately whatever gets you there,” Howie Abrams said. “If it’s like I’m going to listen to Slayer on the train to get me to go, then that’s what you should do. It can be anything, whatever keeps you motivated.”
The film’s message is simple: find solace in the music you love, no matter how loud or fast it may be.